Regional Trade Integration in Asia and the Pacific: Assessing Opportunities

Abstract

The article examines the current trends in trade integration of Pacific Asia, its features and prospects after the establishment of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP). For a long period, the rapid expansion of intraregional trade was largely facilitated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), but in recent years the key indicators point to its slowdown. Under these conditions, with the new agreement (RCEP), which includes more participants, Asian countries in the long term expect to strengthen their role in global trade as major suppliers of industrial products on the basis of global and regional value chains supported by trade and investment agreements. At the same time, they are challenged to overcome negative trends in the regional economy due to the ongoing deglobalization, fragmentation of markets and the creation of new barriers to exports.